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We’re all very aware of the female biological clock, but what we don’t hear so so much about is the fact that male sperm counts decline and DNA damage in sperm cells may increase as men get over. The fact that some high-profile men have become fathers when they are pensioners perpetuates the myth that male fertility lasts forever.

In fact, evidence shows men do have a biological clock with a decline in natural male fertility and an increase in the miscarriage rate as men get older. New evidence at ESHRE from one London fertility clinic shows that IVF/ICSI is less likely to succeed if a male partner is over 51 too.

Dr Guy Morris from the Centre for Reproductive and Genetic Health (CRGH) in London presented results at the ESHRE (European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology) conference of an analysis of more than 5000 IVF/ICSI cycles which found that although there was no difference in miscarriage rates, there was a significant reduction in the chances of success

The results showed that that clinical pregnancy rate declined as men got older – from 49.9% when men were under 35, to 42.5% for men aged 36-40, 35.2% for those aged 41-45, 32.8% for those aged 46-50, and 30.5% in the over 51s.

The researchers also noted that 80% of couples where the male partners were over 51 were treated with ICSI, a treatment developed for male infertility. Dr Morris said: ‘There may well be a public perception that male fertility is independent of age. Stories of celebrity men fathering children into their 60s may give a skewed perspective on the potential risks of delaying fatherhood. Indeed, in natural conception and pregnancy it is only recently that evidence of risks associated with later fatherhood has become available. These more recent studies contrast with decades of evidence of the impact that maternal age has on fertility outcomes. In the context of this emerging evidence for the deleterious effect of increasing paternal age, our data certainly support the importance of educating men about their fertility and the risks of delaying fatherhood.’

It is sometimes difficult as a patient in a fertility clinic to know whether it is worth paying for some or any of the add-on treatments you may be offered. Now, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), which regulates IVF clinics in the UK, and 10 of the leading professional and patient fertility groups, have agreed how treatment add-ons should be offered ethically in clinical practice in the UK in a consensus statement published today.

It’s published in response to growing evidence of add-ons being offered to patients, without conclusive evidence to date that any of them increase the chance of a pregnancy, and the fact that many patients feel they must do anything to improve the possibility of success. The aim is to create a culture change among fertility professionals in the UK.

Sally Cheshire CBE, Chair of the HFEA, said “We welcome the introduction of new treatments that could increase the chances of success, however, we want to see responsible innovation. Fertility treatment add-ons are being offered to more patients by clinics and we know many patients are asking for these add-ons and paying for them if they have private treatment. It’s crucial that clinics are transparent about the add-on treatments they offer, including the potential costs, to ensure patients know exactly whether they are likely to increase their chance of having a baby. That is why we’ve been working with professional groups such as the British Fertility Society to decide how unproven treatments into clinical practice should be correctly and ethically introduced, which is a vital step towards a more transparent approach in fertility services. We are now expecting clinics to provide information about treatment add-ons to patients, including what evidence there is of effectiveness.”

Alongside the principles for clinics, the HFEA has also published information on the most commonly offered add-ons, with a traffic light rating system, to help patients better understand the effectiveness of treatments they might consider.

Sally adds: “It’s crucial that patients inform themselves about the add-ons they may be offered, so that they can ask the right questions, and make the right choices, when choosing what treatment to have. We’ve produced ‘traffic light’ rated information on our website that keeps them up-to-date with the latest evidence on each of the most commonly offered add-ons.”

Jason Kasraie, Chair of the Association of Clinical Embryologists, said “We support greater transparency in the sector with regard to treatment add-ons. Whilst it is important that we work to ensure patients always receive the latest treatments and have access to new technologies in order to maximise their chance of treatment success, it is also essential that we ensure patients are fully informed and that only procedures or technologies that are evidence based are used.”

Key principles of the consensus statement are:

Clinics should only offer treatment add-ons where more than one high quality study demonstrates a treatment add-on to be safe and effective.

Clinics should stop offering the treatment add-on to patients if concerns are raised regarding safety or effectiveness.

Patients must be clearly informed of the experimental nature of any treatment add-on which is offered, where there is no robust evidence of its safety and/or effectiveness

Patients should not be charged extra to take part in a clinical trial.

The General Medical Council, has welcomed the statement. Chief Executive, Charlie Massey said: “We welcome this consensus statement, which will help protect fertility patients from poor practice and feeling pressure to accept additional, unproven extras. Patients deserve to have the best available evidence so they can make informed decisions, in partnership with doctors. It’s vital that doctors innovate responsibly and place patient safety first and foremost. Our guidance on consent sets out how doctors should work with patients to make decisions together about care and treatment options. Doctors working in the fertility sector must ensure that patients have information about the options available to them, including risks and available evidence, as well as any potential benefits.”

You can read the statement here and find out more about the HFEA’s traffic light system for add-ons here

Most people having fertility treatment are keen to absolutely anything they can to try to boost their chances of success, and sometimes that can mean paying for additional treatments as well as their IVF or ICSI which they hope can increase the likelihood that they will get pregnant. The problem with many of these treatments is that there is not yet sufficient evidence to be able to say that they will do what they claim to do, but fertility patients sometimes decide to have them anyway.

One treatment offered by some clinics is related to the level of natural killer (NK) cells in a woman’s body – the very name suggests that having a lot of these must inevitably be a bad thing. If you are considering having your NK cells tested as part of your fertility treatment, you may be interested in reading this article which explains the growing understanding that at least some of a woman’s natural killer cells act as peacekeepers, preventing other immune cells from attacking the fetus. They also produce chemicals which promote the growth of the baby and blood vessel connections.

You can read more about all fertility treatment add-ons on the HFEA website, where each of the different treatments has been ranked according to the latest scientific evidence and given a traffic light grading.

When you’re thinking about having IVF and looking at different clinics, the logical place to start is clinic websites – but it is increasingly apparent that when it comes to the cost of a cycle of treatment, that might not be as helpful as it should be. The headline prices for IVF on clinic websites have always been lower than the price patients pay as they rarely include the drugs used during a treatment cycle which adds considerably to the bill. Recently, however, I’ve spoken to a number of patients who have paid up to twice as much as the price their clinic websites have suggested a cycle costs. That’s not because they’ve chosen to have lots of additional optional treatments, but rather because the clinic website cost doesn’t include lots of things that make up part of a normal treatment cycle, such as scans, blood tests, appointments with a consultant or sedation during egg collection.

If you are having treatment here in the UK, your clinic has to give you an individualised fully costed treatment plan before you start your cycle and this should include an estimate of everything you will have to pay. If you are having treatment overseas, there is no such requirement and additional costs can be an issue. When considering a clinic, the important question is what the clinic thinks you are likely to pay in total for your cycle rather than what the website suggests could be the cost of treatment.

If you are considering going abroad for fertility treatment, you may be interested in this article I wrote for a supplement for The Times earlier this week.

For many people, going overseas can be a cheaper option, and many return with positive stories about their experiences, but you do need to be aware of the facts and understand the differences you may find if you choose to have treatment outside the UK.

There are some great clinics across the globe, but there are also some that are not quite so great and you don’t have the protection that you have here in the UK of knowing that all clinics offering IVF are licensed and regularly inspected by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. As you don’t have that luxury with clinics elsewhere, you do need to make sure you do your homework and research as much as you can about the clinic and the country to ensure that you are left feeling that you did the right thing in choosing to travel for treatment.

I know I’ve written about this before, but it is so sad to see that things haven’t changed at all with some fertility clinics creating fake patients to advertise their services online. Let’s be clear, this isn’t just a made-up quote about how marvellous their services are, it is multiple fake profiles on each fertility forum with fake people talking about their “experiences” of infertility. They often post regularly before they mention the clinic, so have other people talking to them and expressing their support. Until of course, they suddenly mention that surrogacy appears to be the solution and that they have a very good friend who went to xxx clinic and now has four children.

I can’t imagine anyone ever deciding to go to a clinic which has to resort to paying people to pretend to be experiencing fertility problems – and which clearly doesn’t even pay enough to employ anyone who can actually write in English. The posts are littered with weirdnesses – “Many couples suggested me this clinic and they are very helping and experience. I suggest you to not waste your time and go a head for surrogacy process its very safe and sound” or “Stop trying with complications just try this. Clinic in Ukraine provides complete facilities.”

Anyone who reads posts on any fertility forum regularly will know exactly what I’m talking about – and will be familiar with the names of the clinics concerned. I suppose they must be under the impression that all publicity is good publicity – but being well known for having such scant regard for the emotional experience of infertility that you think it’s fine to employ people to pretend to be experiencing fertility problems isn’t the sort of publicity any clinic ought to be seeking.

These fake posts take up time for the forum administrators and facilitators who are constantly deleting and reporting fake profiles which seem to appear by the dozen daily. This is time which could be spent helping to refer people to good sources of support and offering advice and guidance.

The one small upside to all this is that the genuine people posting are very aware of the fake people and there have been some fabulously funny posts from real people about the unreal ones. And I suppose we can be reassured that this advertising backfires spectacularly – no one is ever going to opt for the “very helping and experience” clinic which “provides complete facilities“.

If you’re having fertility treatment in the UK, or if you have done in the last year, have you given feedback on your experiences at the clinic? The body which regulates fertility clinics in the UK, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), is keen for patients to give their clinic a rating which you can do here on their website. This feedback is anonymous, and is used to give the clinic a patient rating on the HFEA website so that anyone considering having treatment at the clinic will know what other patients think about it.

You can also add any particular comments or views which are seen by the inspection team who go into the clinic to check how well it is working. This is incredibly important as it helps give inspectors a view of how the clinic is doing from a patient perspective and allows them to look into any particular areas of concern – or to notice where a clinic is doing particularly well.

If everyone took a few minutes to rate their clinic after having treatment it would help promote best practice and ensure that more fertility patients are cared for by compassionate staff, feel involved in discussions about how to progress their treatment and receive exceptional emotional support. So, there’s nothing to lose and everything to gain – if you haven’t done it already, here’s the link again to give feedback on your clinic.

New research has found huge discrepancies in the prices people are charged for IVF and for many extras such as blood tests or drugs as reported here in the Times. It can be difficult if you need treatment as you don’t always feel you have time to shop around – but this shows that it is at least worth making a few calls to see whether anywhere closer to you may offer treatment at a lower price. If you do this though, you do need to make sure that the price isn’t lower because not everything is included in the cost you are being given or because the treatment is not the same. It is also important to be aware that the headline costs on clinic websites often have little to do with the real costs that you will end up paying as a patient.

It’s not just the treatment itself where costs can differ but also the prices paid for any additional treatments which some patients are now considering. When I was looked into this, I was surprised at how big the differences were in the charges for add ons. For example, some clinics were including embryo glue in the cost of an IVF cycle whilst others were charging for it and the costs ranged from £75 to £350. It was a similar picture with endometrial scratch, which you might be able to get free at some clinics across the country by taking part in a clinical trial or which could cost you up to £450. I looked at a small sample of clinics and even in those, found these wide price discrepancies but it does show that it is worth at the very least asking why your clinic is charging what it does if it is much more than others.

Finally, don’t forget that the cost is one part of the equation. If you are having to travel a long distance to the clinic – or if it is overseas – this in itself adds costs both financial and in terms of stress. You will also want to check out the clinic details on the HFEA website to see the latest outcomes from treatment and to see how it is ranked by inspectors and other patients. There is a section in the patient ratings about cost which is particularly relevant as it shows whether people ended up paying more than they expected for treatment at that particular clinic so make sure you have at least considered these things before committing yourself.

Thanks to television news presenter Hannah Vaughan Jones for her brilliant article about her experiences of fertility problems and treatment. I’ve linked to Hannah’s tweet so that you can read the full article which is behind a paywall – and it is something we should all read as a reminder that things haven’t changed, that people are still feeling isolated, lonely and ashamed about their fertility problems, that people are still having to be brave, to pretend they are fine when inside it feels so bleak and desperate. It’s so wonderful when people in the public eye like Hannah and her husband, ITV news presenter Lewis Vaughan Jones, are able to be open about their fertility problems. It makes such a difference to those who are struggling with their own difficulties to know that it isn’t just them, that it can happen to anyone.

Also this week, BBC reporter Sophie Sulehria began a three-month series on PM on BBC Radio 4 charting her experiences of fertility and treatment. She and her husband Jonny have had a long journey involving endometriosis, premature ovarian insufficiency and unsuccessful IVF treatment. It’s really worth listening to Sophie’s story here – she is just so brave to do this in public and it will make such a difference, not just in terms of raising awareness of what it’s actually like to have fertility treatment but also in helping others who are going through fertility problems and treatment themselves. Sophie’s recording of her experiences of a cycle, of embryo transfer, of the two-week wait and a pregnancy test will resonate with anyone who has been there themselves.

Thank you Sophie, thank you Hannah – you are brave and brilliant and we thank you for being able to talk about this and wish you all the best for the future xx

If you’ve had fertility treatment recently or are currently having treatment at a UK clinic, did you know that you can give a review of your clinic’s services on the HFEA website? Your reviews are used to create a patient rating for the clinic which other people can then see on the website along with the outcomes from treatment there and a ranking from the HFEA inspectors.

It’s good to do this if you have a spare moment – and it really won’t take long – as it helps to build up a picture of the clinic for others who may be considering having treatment there. You will be asked a series of questions about the clinic such as

How likely are you to recommend this clinic to friends and family if they needed similar care or treatment?

To what extent did you feel you understood everything that was happening throughout your treatment?

To what extent did you feel you were treated with privacy and dignity?

What was the level of empathy and understanding shown towards you by the clinic team?

You will also be asked about cost for those who had to pay for treatment and you will be able to say whether it was more, less or about the same as you’d been anticipating. Finally, you are able to add any further comments about your experiences which will be seen by the regulator but will not appear on the website.

Choosing a fertility clinic is not easy, particularly if you live in London and the South East where there are so many clinics to choose from, and the views of other people who’ve been to a clinic can be useful.

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Fertility Matters is written by Kate Brian who has been through fertility problems, tests and IVF treatment herself. The website gives reliable information, advice and support to anyone who is having difficulties getting pregnant. Read more